On Tuesday, April 8, 2014 9:38:46 AM UTC-6, Bob Kuykendall wrote:
On Tuesday, April 8, 2014 7:35:33 AM UTC-7, son_of_flubber wrote:



Take a broader view and look at the outcome that you desire. Ideally, some power pilots would become serious students, get their add-on ratings (quickly) and buy private gliders (or become occasional users of club ships, pay dues and volunteer time to keep the club running).



If your training program is already operating at full capacity (instructors have no spare time to give rides), is it a mistake to recruit more students that would serve to overburden the instructors and degrade the training experience for everyone involved?



Those are important considerations. But I would suggest a slightly different perspective:



* In my experience, very few demo rides "stick" and turn into serious students. So in order to replace pilots who are aging-out and otherwise leaving soaring, it pays to do lots of demo rides and introductory lessons.



* If your training program is already operating at full capacity, you must be doing something very right. You rock! Now one of the things you might consider is whether and how you might increase your operating capacity without encountering burnout. More commercial pilots would be a good start; the delta between private and commercial proficiency really isn't all that large.



Thanks, Bob K.

Needs some revision, but speaks clearly to the issues involved in a club/chapter where the SSA Group Plan is in place.

http://www.ssa.org/ClubsAndChapters?show=blog&id=2027

Frank Whiteley